Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/195

171 It is a flat tablet, measuring about 25 in. by 12 in., which formerly was affixed to the wall in the cathedral church of St. Julian at Le Mans, where he was interred.

About the year 1276, the enamelled work of Limoges was so highly in repute in England, that an artist of that city, "Magister Johannes Limovicensis," was employed to construct the tomb and recumbent effigy of Walter de Merton, bishop of Rochester. The monument was despoiled of the enamelled metal at the Reformation, but the accounts of the executors supply the items of expenses incurred in sending a messenger to Limoges, and conveying the tomb from thence, accompanied by Master John, to Rochester. The only enamelled effigy now existing in England is the figure of William de Valence, in Westminster abbey ; he died A.D. 1296, and there can be no doubt that this highly curious portraiture, if not the work of Master John, who might have been employed in consequence of the previous display of his skill at Rochester, was produced by an artist of Limoges.

Having now endeavoured to trace the practice of enamelling from the earliest times to the close of the thirteenth century, a period when all the decorative arts were carried to a great degree of excellence, I shall reserve for a future occasion some further notices of the enamelled works of later times, and of progressive modifications of the process which ultimately led to the production of the exquisite paintings executed by Léonard Limosin and the artists who were established at Limoges, under the influence of the times of Francis I.

The following document, the most ancient recipe for the composition of enamel hitherto noticed, is preserved in the British Museum, in one of the Sloane MSS. which appears to have been written in England in the earlier part of the fourteenth century. It deserves observation, as indicating that